This invention relates to a cellular telephone and, more particularly, to communication terminal apparatus and method for selecting options using a dial shuttle.
Cellular telephones, personal communication (e.g., PCS) devices and other similar products are being utilized in greater numbers each day. Currently, there has been much effort to reduce the size of such portable devices (hereinafter, simply referred to as "cellular telephones"). Several techniques for reducing the size of cellular telephones include utilizing smaller batteries, reducing the size of internal circuitry, reducing the size of the display, and utilizing pull-out antennas in place of fixed antennas. Other techniques include reducing the size of the input keys and reducing the distance (i.e., spaces) between those input keys. However, as input keys get smaller in size, or even just closer together, the utilization of those keys and thus cellular telephones becomes increasingly more difficult.
Another technique for reducing the size of cellular telephones while maintaining suitably-sized input keys is to reduce the number of necessary input keys. One known technique for doing this is to assign multiple functions to the same input key (e.g., the "2" key) wherein one action occurs when the user depresses a particular key in a particular mode of the cellular telephone, and another action occurs when that key is depressed in another operating mode. For example, cellular telephones having alphanumeric displays generally allow a user to enter an identifying name that includes letters, numbers, special characters or any combination thereof using, for example, input keys 0-9 in one or more modes of operation, but those same input keys are used to input a telephone number (i.e., numbers only) in another operating mode. As another example, the "*" and "#" keys are used both for entering "*" and "#" characters (representing, e.g., a pause) in a telephone number and for scrolling through various lists including a previously stored telephone number list. While the "assigning" of multiple functions to the same input key has led to the reduction in the required number of input keys on the face of the cellular telephone, thus leading to a possible reduction in the size of the cellular telephone itself, there still is great demand to further reduce the size of the cellular telephone or, at least, the number of necessary input keys thereof without increasing the difficulty in utilizing the device.